Ferri, Jakup (KO)
Carlsberg Tap E
Jakup Ferri
Born 1981 in Prishtina, Kosovo
Lives in Prishtina
Jakup Ferri's absurd drawings describe in fine, delicate lines the psychology inherent in various power relationships. The drawings, which are in series, capture surreal catch 22 situations. Some of them testify to the traces left in the psyches of Kosovans by the War in the Balkans. One drawing shows two men hanging from what looks like a line of cartridges discharged by a third young man. And in another drawing, a man is seen watering the family's small tree from a high wall, from where he can look down on the family's garden - a drawing conveying, perhaps, the scepticism that pervades post-Communist countries in relation to top-down political decision-making.
Several of Ferri's early drawings are about the uphill struggle it takes to get from the peripheral art scene in Prishtina, where many have no command of English, to recognition on the international art scene. The cynicism of the art world comes in for criticism in several of Ferri's works. One example is a drawing showing two gallery viewers standing before a painting that depicts two people of similar height facing each other and having eye contact - an image of equality. The two viewers are looking neither at the painting nor at each other. They are of different heights and have their backs to each other - an image of the high aspirations of art and the unequal power relations inherent to the art world.
Besides the array of wall drawings scattered around the exhibition area, Ferri shows a series of black and white drawings executed in 2008, and plausibly readable as a comment on the strategies and mechanisms of Western art markets. The work consists of 70-80 drawings, all of which hang on a wall. Nothing new in that. But the installation also includes a photocopier and copies of all the drawings. Visitors are encouraged to take copies of those they like, and so put together a series they can take home for their own wall.
-SHO
Lives in Prishtina
Jakup Ferri's absurd drawings describe in fine, delicate lines the psychology inherent in various power relationships. The drawings, which are in series, capture surreal catch 22 situations. Some of them testify to the traces left in the psyches of Kosovans by the War in the Balkans. One drawing shows two men hanging from what looks like a line of cartridges discharged by a third young man. And in another drawing, a man is seen watering the family's small tree from a high wall, from where he can look down on the family's garden - a drawing conveying, perhaps, the scepticism that pervades post-Communist countries in relation to top-down political decision-making.
Several of Ferri's early drawings are about the uphill struggle it takes to get from the peripheral art scene in Prishtina, where many have no command of English, to recognition on the international art scene. The cynicism of the art world comes in for criticism in several of Ferri's works. One example is a drawing showing two gallery viewers standing before a painting that depicts two people of similar height facing each other and having eye contact - an image of equality. The two viewers are looking neither at the painting nor at each other. They are of different heights and have their backs to each other - an image of the high aspirations of art and the unequal power relations inherent to the art world.
Besides the array of wall drawings scattered around the exhibition area, Ferri shows a series of black and white drawings executed in 2008, and plausibly readable as a comment on the strategies and mechanisms of Western art markets. The work consists of 70-80 drawings, all of which hang on a wall. Nothing new in that. But the installation also includes a photocopier and copies of all the drawings. Visitors are encouraged to take copies of those they like, and so put together a series they can take home for their own wall.
-SHO